Letter to my anti-Zionist friend in the West

Why write it? Why try? 

The complete breakdown of a political and social relationship between the Zionist and anti-Zionist Left after October 7th must belong to the most alarming (and interesting) developments on the Western Left as a whole in recent years. The loss of mutual trust and bilateral allegations of betrayal of values have been nothing but damaging to the very people located on the polar opposites of this discourse as well as their shared struggle. I myself have lost some of the people closest to my heart due to the tension that arose on the Left in the past year and a half. 

 

I am penning this letter because I refuse to accept the world in which the European and American Left have given up on the Israeli and Jewish Left. I am speaking out because I do not think that our relationship is beyond repair. 

 

I don’t think that the Western Left is fundamentally or innately antisemitic, and I find this allegation to be at worst a lazy and misguided allegation, at best – an incomplete one. Similarly to Prof. Dara Horn, I believe that the Western Left’s attitude towards Israel at large is filled with ignorance and misunderstanding rather than malice. What I think so many miss is that the new generation of European Left (amongst them: students, content creators, activists) have come of age around the time of an unparalleled refugee crisis in Europe and the legacy of the War on Terror in North America. In our most formative years, we witnessed two opposite political and social tendencies – that of great hospitality and great hostility. The disastrous treatment of Muslims and Arabs in Europe and the xenophobic rhetoric around it became the most concerning development for anyone on the Left. 

 

The politicians and pundits we despised for misogyny and homophobia quickly adapted to stay relevant and developed infamously Islamophobic views, so the push against them naturally became a push against Islamophobia. Furthermore, the repercussions of the refugee crisis of the 2010s (the current crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, the failure of integration of many refugees in Germany, France, Italy or Sweden, etc.) have effectively shaped what it means to be a leftist in Europe and whether you’ll choose to align yourself with the Islamophobic Right or a more inclusive Left. What my generation missed were the plenty of antisemitic views historically present on the Left, explained away as anti-globalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-American that many accepted as part of a package. More, they missed that people who were largely a victim in one part of the world could very well be one of belligerents in the other. 

 

Matters got worse with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, where the narrative of a “complexed, nuanced conflict” was weaponized by the aggressor to even out the guilt. We grew accustomed to watching a conflict in which the roles and the responsibility are clear; I am certain that when Israel went into Gaza and we said it was “complicated,” the mind of many of you went straight to Ukraine. 

 

Finally, I blame a lot of this debacle on a disappointing, skewed, and inefficient Holocaust education the European youth receives, where the Holocaust was universalized and Jewish peoplehood was never explained. The last room in a Holocaust museum would always encourage us to be kind to our neighbours or stand against bullying at school, but we were robbed of a more fundamental and political lesson – that of the unique danger of antisemitism and the consequences of powerlessness for Jews. Combine it all with an intellectually stiff environment of the Western Left, which, perhaps due to insecurity, rarely welcomes criticism and too often allows for only one acceptable way of thinking; you’d struggle not to end up an anti-Zionist. And when, like many, all you truly have is the feeling of belonging, safety, acceptance, and embrace, which is dependent on whether or not you stand against this wicked three-syllable word, you will double down on it no matter what. 

 

You need to decenter yourself from the conversation 

The first step in fixing the relationship between the Israeli and Western Left is for the latter to understand that all of this simply cannot be about who has the shiniest leftist badge. The great majority of Jews have found it out after October 7th the hard way – now it’s the time for the rest of you to catch up. Political activism, true allyship, and being of help to those who need it do not follow a clear-cut ideology – you must have the courage to do what’s unpopular and to reject an us vs. them framework. You must be open to a reality that does not fit into what you read or studied, and allow your own philosophy to be shaped by what you see and not what you see by what you believe. 

 

The binary outlook, where you either oppress or are oppressed, is limiting your understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. People here have proven to be more than capable of both, and their very existence disproves the notions we were taught about violence, hatred, and power. What you should always strive to do is to reexamine your own internalised bias and bigotry – invite criticism, be ready to be …-splained because to have a stance on the Middle East is not a human right, especially when you have nothing at stake. Rather, you’re being invited to a complex discourse where the power dynamics and people’s values are different because it’s, simply, a different place. 

 

You need to get over Zionism 

I’ve come to believe that it’s nearly impossible to have a sensible conversation about Israel-Palestine because it always gets to the point of an unhealthy obsession with the word: Zionism. This word has become such a huge and charged obstacle on the way of reaching understanding that we simply must deal with it once and for all. The way most Jews have understood Zionism (and still do) throughout history is the establishment and preservation of a Jewish democratic state in the Land of Israel; it stemmed from the European Enlightenment at the time of many other national and social movements. The question of religion and borders was always secondary and debated by the Zionist movement. It was an impressively pragmatic and practical struggle that did not allow itself to sink into heavy ideology but rather focused on the goal ahead. 

 

It all matters because we are ultimately faced with a simple choice – either to get stuck in a pseudo-academic discussion of what Zionism is in theory or to have an easy look around and talk about its benefits, losses, and trade-offs for all nations that it has impacted. I subscribe to Zionism which hails as the most successful indigenous rights movement in global history, which helped Jews undergo a fundamentally positive change of collective psyche, which is open to compromise and uplift other national movements, and which promises dignity and equality to all. You are more than welcome to join me in that understanding, but you also don’t need to, as long as you get over the word itself and stop demonising the very notion of Jews having a state in their ancient homeland. 

 

You can be critical, but you shouldn’t be dogmatic and narrow-minded. Helpful here is the concept of ideological possession, which is a psychological phenomenon where it’s possible to predict all of someone’s views based on just one political position. When that happens, it’s not a person we’re speaking to but an ideology that possesses someone’s entire being. We can probably agree that it sounds all too familiar for anyone who’s ever had friends on the Left. 

 

You need to learn the history and culture of the people you speak about 

To begin to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to read a long, complicated, and often boring history. It cannot be fit into an Instagram post, nor into a single movie or lecture – understanding is not an action, but a practice that requires great patience and determination. Importantly, you need to keep humble and ever-curious – some time ago, I interviewed Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal, a political psychologist, who have authored hundreds of scientific papers, tens of books, edited renowned political journals and with his own eyes saw every war between Israelis and Arabs from 1957 onwards and he still confessed he doesn’t fully understand the conflict nor what its solution should be; if he doesn’t, what makes you believe that you do?

 

Importantly, you need to read boring and detailed history. There’s a time and place to read the revisionists, too, but if that’s all you are reading, you’ll end up stuck in a confirmation bias. Start with Morris, Shapira, Shlaim, and on the Palestinian side, Nusseibeh and Ashrawi. Read people who ultimately want good, want peace, want resolution, and who haven’t based their entire careers on demonising the other side. Moreover, you need to face the controversial history you’d rather not know about and which challenges what you believe, as much as you should read about the anti-Palestinian terror of the Stern Gang, read about the history of Palestinian pogroms against Jews too; in doing so, learn how to hold on to multiple truths. 

 

Finally, you need to have at least a basic understanding of the culture and mindset of Israelis. It’s overly simplistic and unproductive to label Israeli society as violent or vengeful without digging deeper into their experiences. Nowadays, when someone asks me about Israeli politics, history, or a path to resolution, they need to bear listening to a long monologue about what Israel means to me, what it meant to my grandparents, what it gave me, and those I love. I believe that only this way, the people at the center here, will be humanised. 

 

You need to find and embrace nuance (without sacrificing your moral clarity) 

In both Israel and Palestine, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Things could not possibly be clear in a conflict this long with this many adversaries – for every Israeli crime or mistake, I could name two committed by Palestinians, then three by Israelis, and four by Palestinians again, with no end in sight. This is a very tough place that deserves nuance and patience. It cannot be reduced to occupation or terrorism alone – the conflict between Jews and Palestinians has components of land struggle, religion, political violence, military, emancipation, feelings of belonging and alienation, a mix of humiliation and triumph, xenophobia, and prejudice. 

 

In other words, things are nuanced here, and the only way to be helpful to the people who bear the consequences of this conflict is to hold these contradictions. That doesn’t mean that some things do not remain always wrong and need to be called out as such: terrorism or senseless violence in all its shades must always be condemned. You cannot sacrifice your moral clarity and basic truths to explain away what so clearly is evil. 

 

This letter ends without a specific direction or request. Perhaps because it would be too difficult to convey, perhaps because I wouldn’t know what to say. My only wish is for anyone reading to not give up on anyone – Jews, Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, and to recognise our shared humanity. Once that’s done and you see that all people here deserve better and safer lives, we can move to a conversation on how to achieve it. But that can’t happen unless you see Jews and Israelis for who they deep down are and what values they hold close. 

 

Undersigned with warm regards and 

the belief that it is a starting point of many more fruitful conversations to come, 

Kacper Max